'Breathless' part 4

After a repair visit to Javier's apartment NYCHA says it fixed Javier's mold problem. But he believes the fix is only a temporary. In his quest to prove it, Javier turns asthma detective, visiting several neighbors to see if their apartments have asthma triggers.

>>as far as it's gonna return, the mold. you want a clean apartment, where it's not gonna return? i can't guarantee that.

>> reporter: apparently finding out exactly what was causing the mold and fixing that seemed to be beyond this
nycha
crew's
job description
.

>>cosmetic.

>>cosmetic.

>> reporter: javier
says that even though the workers told him the mold could return, in court the
housing authority
claimed they had removed it permanently.
javier
set out to prove it wasn't so.

>>we have moisture back there.

>>oh, you do. up to 8300.

>> reporter: on advice of the
asthma
experts he had been consulting with,
javier
invited bill southern, a respected
industrial hygienist
and mold removal specialist to check moisture readings in the bathroom.

>>max.

>> reporter: southern was convinced the mold would return.

>>it's just a matter of time.

>> reporter: then, hoping to show at trial that his was not an isolated case,
javier
turned
asthma
detective. he decided to investigate what was going on in the apartments above him and below him. well, you don't have to be
sherlock holmes
to guess what he found.

>>wow. this is as bad if not worse than mine. now, this is apartment 11b, which is right above me.

>> reporter: and an apartment four floors below
javier
, the same story.

>>you can see -- wow -- the mold which is consistent. the mold. you see the roaches. i have the same issue with roaches. they're coming out the vents.

>> reporter: there are 748 apartments in
javier
's building. "dateline" found that in
2012
, the number of repair requests for problems that could cause or exacerbate
asthma
was 788.
javier
once thought his daughter was the only one in the building with
asthma
. not anymore.

>>do you have a child with
asthma
?

>>yeah, my daughter.

>>do you know that mold is considered an
asthma
trigger?

>>no.

>> reporter: armed with photo evidence,
javier
was prepared for his day in court. but while he was hopeful the housing court judge would rule in his favor, across town in brownsville,
roseanna
was losing all hope
nycha
would ever make her bathroom
asthma
safe for
amanda
.

>>and at this point, i got paperwork from my daughter's doctor that she's real sick because of this condition in my bathroom.

>> reporter: finally,
roseanna
's persistence seemed to pay off. a mold removal technician showed up, but he quickly realized that what had to be fixed before anything else was the leak in the ceiling that was causing the mold. his supervisor suggested a band-aid solution instead.

>>all right. listen. why don't we do this. we don't we clean it, scrape it, all right? and scrape this little bit down gently, and let's just hit this real quick. i'll get some paint. we'll hit this up so at least it looks decent.

>> reporter: breathing mask on, the workers sprayed bleach on the ceiling and walls. the door was often
wide open
. the chemical smell was so strong,
roseanna
feared it could trigger one of
amanda
's
asthma
attacks. on
hidden camera
, a "dateline" producer approached the worker as he was waiting for the paint to arrive.

>>i don't know why they say this is a hot job.

>>they call it had a hot job? what does that mean?

>>i think there was a complaint. i don't know. i think there was something about a tenant in a meeting.

>>yeah.

>> reporter: this hot job soon turned into a no job.

>>we're just going to leave it.

>>they left me a stinky, smelly bathroom and a mess. they just came in and did it so they could oh, let's do something so she can shut up, and i continue calling and monitoring.

>> reporter: two weeks later,
amanda
had to go to the
emergency room
again. she missed another day of school. the 11th day she had been absent this year already.

>>my teacher noticed i have been absent a lot. and my mom explained that i have
asthma
. and then when i go back to school, there's a lot of homework at my desk because i miss it.

>> reporter: studies have shown that if
elementary school
kids miss more than 18 days a year, they were more likely to drop out of school later on. but it wasn't only
amanda
who was falling behind. nationwide, adults affected by
asthma
miss more than 14 million working days a year.
roseanna
couldn't afford to miss even one. after yet another
phone call
,
nycha
notified her that it was sending yet another crew. so she worked a double shift in order to be there.

>>i work monday 9:00 to 5:00, came home, cooked for my kids, and went back to work from
10:00
to 8:00 in the morning today. and here i am. exhausted, tired.

>>you guys are --

>>we're here to take care of the mold and the mildew.

>>okay.

>> reporter: it was
january 15th
, 11 months since
roseanna
turned to
nycha
for repairs after
amanda
's
asthma
diagnosis.

>>your whole ceiling came down. the last time they painted, it all came down. it was all wet.

>> reporter: and listen to this. clearly this
nycha
crew had encountered cases like
roseanna
's before, and they were on her side.

>>you really have to get 'em in here for the leak, the plaster and the paint. and if they give you a date for
2015
, tell them it's not good enough.

>>she knows. she's got
2014
already.

>>really? so you be rude and nasty and go in there and say, listen. i'm not livin' like this. it's got to get fixed. i pay my rent on time. you know, i work hard. my kids are sick. blah, blah, blah. whatever you've got to tell them. this is unacceptable. fix my house.

>> reporter: the mold appeared gone, at least to the
naked eye
. but
roseanna
knew that if the leak in her ceiling was not fixed, it would come back in no time. unfortunately, none of this was new to these guys.